Warm and comforting sweet potato and chickpea curry made with a lightly spiced coconut sauce. This wholesome and nutritious vegetarian curry is made in one big pan and can be ready in just one hour.
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👩🏻🍳 Why make this recipe
This warming sweet potato and chickpea curry is a great option for a delicious vegetarian dinner with plenty of healthy veg and aromatic spicy flavours. The sweet potatoes really bring this dish to life by melting their wonderfully sweet caramelised juices into the spicy coconut sauce and creating a gorgeous consistency. A warm and inviting curry with husky flavours of cumin and garam masala and a pungent taste of ginger all infused with the sweetness of the potatoes. It really is the ultimate healthy, comfort food.
🥘 Ingredients
This recipe makes enough sweet potato curry to serve 4 people:
Ingredient notes
Measurements: For the amounts required, see the recipe card below and also use the toggle button to see the recipe in cups.
Sweet potatoes: If preferred you can use normal potatoes, and make potato and spinach curry.
Coconut milk: Use full fat coconut as reduced fat will make the curry watery.
Chickpeas: Optional or can be replaced with other pulses such as beans, split peas or lentils.
Yogurt (not pictured): Yogurt is an optional topping, but its creamy and cooling nature works really well with the heat from the spices. Choose plain yogurt.
🔪 Step by step instructions
- Heat up the oil in a large frying pan, add the cumin seeds and fry for 30 seconds or until golden brown (be careful not to burn them). As soon as the seeds start to change colour add in the chopped onion, garlic and ginger and cook on a gentle heat until soft.
- Stir in the curry powder, garam masala and cinnamon and cook for a further minute to allow the flavours to be released.
- Next add the cubed sweet potato, chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and coconut milk. Stir together well then bring to a gentle simmer.
- Place a lid on the pan and continue to simmer for around 30 minutes or until the potatoes are soft (blade of a knife pushes in easily).
- Meanwhile drain and rinse the can of chickpeas and wash the spinach leaves. Once the potatoes are cooked through, add the chickpeas and spinach to the curry. Stir in and continue to cook on the heat until the spinach has wilted.
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Season with salt, pepper and lime juice then serve with rice and naan. Add toppings if desired: yogurt, fresh coriander, chilli flakes, onion seeds and lime wedges.
💭 Expert tips
- Frying cumin seeds: Add a couple of cumin seeds to test the heat of the oil. If the seeds bubble then the oil is hot enough. Add the rest of the seeds but only cook briefly, until just golden brown, before adding the onions. Be aware that cumin seeds are quick to burn, which will create a bitter taste throughout the dish.
- Chickpeas: To avoid any chickpeas skins floating around in the curry, place the chickpeas in a sieve then agitate under a running tap to loosen any skins. Pick these out and discard.
- Make it your own: Use split peas, lentils or beans, or completely swap the chickpeas for one of these. Try with different types of lentils (green, yellow) or add other vegetables such as roasted squash, roast cauliflower, courgette or aubergine. And for an extra protein boost try with shredded chicken or poached fish.
❓ Frequently asked questions
This curry is packed full of nutrients including protein, fibre, iron and plenty of vitamins and minerals. Chickpeas are low in fat and high in protein and along with the sweet potatoes will do a great. Job of filling you up due to both containing plenty of fibre. Spinach is also a great option for boosting your iron and folate levels.
If you like your curry hot then there are a couple of extras you can add to turn up the heat. Try adding fresh green or red chopped chillies during cooking. The increase the heat further use smaller chillies and leave in the seeds. You could also add chilli flakes whiles cooking or add chilli sauce or Tabasco as toppings.
What to do with any leftovers? Once fully cooled you can transfer any leftover curry to a sealable container. Seal and keep in the fridge for 2-3 days or freeze for up to 1 month. To reheat defrost thoroughly in the fridge overnight (if frozen) then transfer to a pan and heat until piping hot throughout.
🍛 Other Curry recipes
- Thai Green Prawn Curry
- Red Lentil Dahl
- Fish Biryani
- Thai Red Curry Recipe
- Chicken Tikka Masala Curry
- Thai Panang Curry
- Thai Green Curry Recipe
If you've tried this recipe, let me know what you think by leaving a star rating in the recipe card or comment section below. I always appreciate your feedback! You can also follow me on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram or Sign up to my email list!
📖 Recipe
Sweet Potato and Chickpea Curry
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 onion roughly chopped
- 1 clove garlic finely chopped
- 2 cm piece fresh ginger peeled and grated
- 2 tablespoons medium curry powder
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
- 2 large sweet potatoes peeled and chopped into small chunks
- 2 tins of chopped tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons tomato puree
- 1 tin coconut milk full fat
- 2 handfuls of baby spinach leaves
- 1 small tin chickpeas
- Lime juice to taste
- Salt and pepper to taste
Extras to serve
- Rice
- Plain yogurt
- Chilli flakes
- Onion seeds
- Fresh coriander
- Naan bread
Instructions
- Heat up the oil in a large frying pan, add the cumin seeds and fry for 30 seconds or until golden brown (be careful not to burn them). As soon as the seeds start to change colour add in the chopped onion, garlic and ginger and cook on a gentle heat until soft.1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, 1 onion, 1 clove garlic, 2 cm piece fresh ginger
- Stir in the curry powder, garam masala and cinnamon and cook for a further minute to allow the flavours to be released.2 tablespoons medium curry powder, 1 teaspoon garam masala, 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
- Next add the cubed sweet potato, chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and coconut milk. Stir together well then bring to a gentle simmer.2 large sweet potatoes, 2 tins of chopped tomatoes, 2 tablespoons tomato puree, 1 tin coconut milk
- Place a lid on the pan and continue to simmer for around 30 minutes or until the potatoes are soft (blade of a knife pushes in easily).
- Meanwhile drain and rinse the can of chickpeas and wash the spinach leaves. Once the potatoes are cooked through, add the chickpeas and spinach to the curry. Stir in and continue to cook on the heat until the spinach has wilted.1 small tin chickpeas, 2 handfuls of baby spinach leaves
- Season with salt, pepper and lime juice then serve with rice and naan. Add toppings if desired: yogurt, fresh coriander, chilli flakes, onion seeds and lime wedges.Lime juice to taste, Rice, Plain yogurt, Chilli flakes, Onion seeds, Fresh coriander, Naan bread
Nutrition
Notes
This curry is packed full of nutrients including protein, fibre, iron and plenty of vitamins and minerals. Chickpeas are low in fat and high in protein and along with the sweet potatoes will do a great. Job of filling you up due to both containing plenty of fibre. Spinach is also a great option for boosting your iron and folate levels. How to make this curry extra spicy?
If you like your curry hot then there are a couple of extras you can add to turn up the heat. Try adding fresh green or red chopped chillies during cooking. The increase the heat further use smaller chillies and leave in the seeds. You could also add chilli flakes whiles cooking or add chilli sauce or Tabasco as toppings. How to store?
What to do with any leftovers? Once fully cooled you can transfer any leftover curry to a sealable container. Seal and keep in the fridge for 2-3 days or freeze for up to 1 month. To reheat defrost thoroughly in the fridge overnight (if frozen) then transfer to a pan and heat until piping hot throughout.
This post was first published in Sept 2016. Updated in Mar 2022 with an improved recipe, new images, step by step instructions and expert tips.
Josie
Great recipe, thank you! I decided to use my slow cooker from step 3 and just left it for a few hours until the potato was soft. I agree that having the ingredients and quantities under the steps is a brilliant idea, so helpful.
Lauren
New favourite curry alert!! It takes a lot for a curry to impress me these days, but this one was utterly divine. This is absolutely going to be a recurring meal for me — it is equal parts easy, cozy, and delicious, what more can you ask for!
Celeste
Made this tonight and thoroughly enjoyed it. We served it on homemade flat breads. Recipe is very easy to follow and huge kudos to the author who underneath the steps of the method wrote the ingredients and how much - such a useful thing to do. This will become a staple of our meal rotations (and on a non meat heavy week I’ll do it with lamb!)
Debbie Jones
Hi Celeste, thanks so much for taking the time to leave your lovely comment. So glad you enjoyed the recipe 😊 Debbie x
Caroline
Can I use something other than coconut milk as not keen on it. Can I use yoghurt?
Debbie Jones
Hi Caroline, thanks for your question. The best replacement for coconut milk in terms of consistency and flavour is cream. This can be a little heavy so you can also use yogurt or milk depending on your preferred taste. If using milk I would recommend adding flour (mix with a bit of water to make a paste before adding) as well, to help keep the sauce thick. Hope this helps, let me know how it turns out. Debbie x
enid
Looks fantabulous!
Pat
great stuff
Jo
Oooh looks amazing!!
Debbie
Thanks Jo 😊